iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Congratulations to Pat Schnable for receiving the 2027 McClintock prize. Very well deserved for all his major contributions to maize genetics over the past decades.

Header of the press release of Iowa State University concering Pat Schnable receiving the McClintock prize.

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Cool use of the BonnMu transposon insertion database showed that predicted pollen fitness genes contained less often transposon insertions particularly in the exon. bsky.app/profile/jefo...

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Andreas P.M. Weber 🌾🌱🧬 @apmweber.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Two out of the three Nobel Prize winners are members of @plantsciencedbg.bsky.social

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Nobel Prize @nobelprize.org · 05/10/2026

Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel – awarded the 2026 medicine prize – discovered a remarkable protein, channelrhodopsin, in a single-celled alga. Hegemann wondered how Chlamydomonas, a single-celled alga, is able to swim towards a light source.

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German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) @plantsciencedbg.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Congratulations to biophysicist Peter Hegemann @humboldtuni.bsky.social, plant physiologist Georg Nagel @uni-wuerzburg.de, and @deisseroth.bsky.social! …. it all started with a basic research question: how tiny alga sense light

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Ich hoffe immer noch darauf, dass Matthew Meselson (*1930) doch noch den Nobelpreis bekommt. Franklin Stahl ist leider letztes Jahr gestorben. Ihr Nachweis aus dem Jahr 1958, dass sich die DNA semikonservativ repliziert, ist immer noch eines der elegantesten Experimente der Biologie.

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Paula Urrutia @sciart-is-cool.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

NeuVa Mandalas are on view at the Kurpark Apotheke in Bad Godesberg! Window shopping for neurovascular cell biology and art. #neuvaartlab #ruizdealmodovarlab #sciart #neurovascularcellbiology #bonn

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Gabriel Schaaf @gabrielschaaf.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

New W2 Professorship in crop/plant sciences at the University of Bonn 🌱 We especially welcome expertise in genome engineering and pest & disease control …and interdisciplinary research bridging topics with the cluster of excellence #PhenoRob Apply by Sept 30 🔗 www.uni-bonn.de/en/universit...

uni-bonn.de

W2 Professorship within the Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob

W2 Professorship

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

There are still a few spots open for the 1.5-day 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 maize 🌽 breeders‘ school in Bonn in November. Registration is 160 € for PIs/Industry, 80 € for postdocs and 40.- € for grad students and undergrads. Of course you can also attend if you do not work in 🇫🇷 or 🇩🇪. bsky.app/profile/hoch...

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Caroline Marcon is not only running our BonnMu reverse genetics maize 🌽 ressource very successfully, but she is also a national 🇩🇪 open water swimming 🏊‍♀️ champion. She won Gold 🥇 in the 5 km and Silver 🥈 in the 1.25 km competition in her age category. www.ssfbonn.de/de/aktuelles...

ssfbonn.de

SSF-Masters erfolgreich bei den deutschen Freiwassermeisterschaften in Gummersbach

Am ersten Septemberwochenende wurden die Deutschen Freiwassermeisterschaften der Masters an der Aggertalsperre in Gummersbach ausgetragen. Die von den…

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Maize 🌽 production in France 🇫🇷 in 2026 will be the lowest since 1980 (!) and 35% less than last year due to the unprecedented drought and heatwaves this summer. www.carbonbrief.org/how-this-sum...

Chart showing maize production in France since 1980.

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MaizeGDB @maizegdb.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

We are deeply saddened to share that Michael Freeling passed away on 7/20/2026 after a year-long battle with cancer. Our deepest condolences go to his family, friends, colleagues, and the many students he inspired. We will share additional memorial information soon.

We are very sorry to share the sad news that Michael Freeling passed away on 7/20/2026 after a year long battle with esophageal cancer. Mike was a long-time faculty member in the Plant and Microbiology Department at University of California-Berkeley, a groundbreaking plant geneticist, and an inspiring teacher and mentor to over two dozen Ph.D. students, four dozen postdocs, and countless undergraduates. He was best known for pioneering work on maize anaerobic metabolism and gene regulation, transposon biology, developmental genetics of the maize ligule, and the discovery of biased gene retention following whole-genome duplications in plants. Mike was hired by UC-Berkeley as an assistant professor straight out of graduate school in 1973, and he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1979 and to full professor in 1984. He was selected as a Guggenheim Fellow in 1980, elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1994, and won the McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies in 2017. Mike taught genetics, comparative genomics and scientific reasoning to our graduate students, and he also taught a popular genetics course for non-majors that had various titles over the years but was affectionately known as “Genetics for Poets.” Our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends and many colleagues.

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Gabriel Schaaf @gabrielschaaf.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Please share! 🌱🤖 Permanent W2 Professorship in crop & plant sciences @ PhenoRob, University of Bonn. Especially encouraged: crop genome engineering, sustainable pest control, or sustainable disease control. Expertise in one area is enough. Apply by Sept. 30, 2026. www.uni-bonn.de/en/universit...

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Karl Schmid @kjschmid.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Ich durfte dem Reutlinger Generalanzeiger ein Interview zur Abstimmung über neue genomische Techniken um EU-Parlament geben. #GMO #NGT

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

und wie ging der Fall des Angeklagten aus, der sich beim Opfer schon mit einer Kiste Bier entschuldigt hatte?

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Abscheiden der y-Achse wird leider auch bei der Tagesschau praktiziert. bsky.app/profile/hoch...

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Tatsächlich geht es nur um die Festlegung der Reihenfolge der Schützen 1 bis 11. Drücken kann sich niemand. Ab Schütze Nr. 6 wird es nur immer unwahrscheinlicher, dass man noch drankommt. Deshalb ist es sinnvoll die zuerst schiessen zu lassen, die sich sicher fühlen.

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Penelope Lindsay @penlindsay.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

my image is featured on the cover of New Phytologist! Interested in receptor proximity labeling and how receptors coordinate meristem regulation? Find out more here: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽 Registration for the 3rd French-German Maize Breeders‘ School on Nov 3 & 4 @unibonn.bsky.social is now open: www.maiskomitee.de/presse-medie... 🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽 Registration fee: Regular 160.- € Postdocs 80.- € PhD students 40.- €

maiskomitee.de

3rd French-German Maize Breeders School

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I was on a 🇩🇪 reviewing board for postdoc fellowships last week. In the past, the 🇺🇸 was always the No. 1 destination across all disciplines. This time, only 10% of applicants aimed for the US. This year the most popular destination was 🇦🇺 (Australia).

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Toll, dass Sie Karlheinz Förster nennen. Einer aus der legendären Talentschmiede von Waldhof Mannheim, aus der in den 70er u 80er Jahren einige namhafte Spieler hervorgingen: KH u Bernd Förster, Jürgen Kohler, Maurizio Gaudino, Christian Wörns…

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽 The program for the 3rd French-German Maize Breeders‘ School on Nov 3 & 4, 2026 in Bonn is now online: www.maiskomitee.de/fileadmin/us... 🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽🇫🇷🇩🇪🌽 We have 24 speakers, 12 from French 🇫🇷 and 12 from German 🇩🇪 institutions.

maiskomitee.de

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

maiskomitee.de

3rd French-German Maize Breeders School

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Sehr gut! Der vierte war Vavá WM 58 und 62, auf den bin ich auch nicht gekommen.

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Ich hätte aber auch eher Brehme statt Breitner nomminiert. Aber Breitner ist imnerhin einer von nur 5 Spielern, die in 2 WM Finals ein Tor erzielt haben (WM 74 das 1:1 und WM 82 den 1:3 Ehrentreffer). Kennen Sie die anderen 4 Spieler?😉 2/2

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Ich stimne ihnen zu. Ich halte Allzeitteams auch nicht für besonders schlau. Vor allem weil sich das Spiel und die Systeme im Laufe der Zeit stark verändert haben, was Vergleiche eigentlich unmöglich macht. 1/2

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Breitner war am Anfang seiner Karriere, auch bei der WM 74, tatsächlich Linksverteidiger, auch wenn er die Rolle sehr offensiv auslegte. Erst später wurde er zum offensiven Mittelfeldspieler.

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Gabriel Schaaf @gabrielschaaf.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Excited to see our new Science Advances paper out! A wonderful collaboration with Martina Ried-Lasi’s group at IPB Halle. Many thanks to Kiran Raj and Verena Gaugler for their outstanding work, and to everyone involved who helped make this study possible. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Dear students, the @tagesschau.bsky.social shows you how NOT to do bar diagrams: - bar charts rely completely on visual proportions. - Therefore, always keep the baseline at zero for any bar chart. - If you must truncate a bar chart, use a visual break symbol to warn the reader of the truncation.

Bar chart of the Tagesschau, which is Germany’s major national news program, displaying how Germany will miss its climate goals by 2030 (which is of course bad!). The y-axis ranges from 6000 to 6300 mio tons CO2 equivalents. Climate goal is 6200, the actual emissions will be 6300. Visually, the graphic implies that the emissions will exceed the goal by 50%, while the goal is actually exceeded by 1.6%.

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

I miss the physical Maize Genetics Newsletter. After the printed issue was discontinued in 2013 and became online only, it was dead shortly after. bsky.app/profile/jros...

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

The big five scientific publishers generate an annual revenue of >$19 billion with profit margins of 30-40% driven by unpaid academic labour. Reasonably compensating reviewers for their work might already substatially contribute to solving the crisis.

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Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Glad to see the dark ages of 2000-2020 are firmly behind us.

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Schnittger Lab @schnittger-lab.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Finally, here it is: after 12 years, and driven by the incredible hard work and innovation of two Ph.D. students, Bingyan Hu and Maria Prusicki, with biomathematical support from Katarina Stahlmann (UKE) — "A cytological framework of female meiosis in Arabidopsis". academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...

academic.oup.com

A cytological framework of female meiosis in Arabidopsis

Live-cell imaging reveals characteristic cytological stages of female meiosis in Arabidopsis and allows an assessment of their durations.

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H.P. @hannelore14089.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Nettie Stevens war eine amerikanische Biologin und Genetikerin, die um 1905 anhand der Spermazelle eines Mehlwurms die bis dahin unbekannte Vererbung des Geschlechts durch X- und Y-Chromosomen entdeckte. 7. Juli 1861 -4. Mai 1912

Sie trägt einen Kittel, schaut durch ein Mikroskop

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

und gegen Schweden 🇸🇪 gleich die nächste Niederlage (2:3)

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Nein, das sind zwei unabhängige Merkmale: Shirt Muster wird co-dominant vererbt (längs+quer -> längsqueer) Hosenfarbe wird überdominant vererbt (hell+weiss -> dunkel)

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Kodominante Merkmale, zB die Blutgruppe, werden so vererbt.

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Co-dominant inheritance bsky.app/profile/wolk...

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Very sad news. I still vividly remember his evening lecture at a Botanik Tagung (I think in Freising) where he said: „There would be no intelligent life on earth without plant roots“ (refering to the fact that almost all mineral nutrients we eat are extracted by roots from soil).

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Ulrich Hammes @uhammes.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

A true giant has left us. Widmar Tanner, a pioneer of plant transporter research, has passed away. He was a brilliant scientist, an outstanding mentor, and simply one of the kindest people one could meet. Rest in peace Widmar, and thank you for everything.

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Universität Bonn @unibonn.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Great news—We remain the most successful German University of Excellence! With eight Clusters of Excellence and funding secured until 2033, we’re moving closer to our goal of establishing our Uni permanently among the best universities in the world: www.uni-bonn.de/en/news/040-... © VL/Uni Bonn

Most successful University of Excellence - In the atrium of the rectorate building, University members watched with bated breath as the decision on excellence was announced.

Most successful University of Excellence - Rector Hoch, together with the Rectorate and hundreds of guests, burst into cheers when the decision was announced.

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Reunion of current and former lab members at the Maize Genetics Meeting in Cologne. #MGM2026

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

The 68th Maize Genetics Meeting in Cologne, Germany has just started. #MGM2026

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Frank Hochholdinger @hochholdingerf.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Bei Olympia wird erst seit 1976 auf millionenschweren Kunsteisbahnen gefahren.

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